I Am A Feedback Monster

I crave feedback. I want to know if I'm having a positive impact. I want to know if I'm helpful. More feedback? Yes please! Give it to me! More! More!

Perhaps that's why I love making software. I write some code. I save it. And I immediately see the results and get feedback from 100s of tests. Or I share the change with a few users to get quick feedback. When I'm making software, these types of feedback are a signal that helps me find a path forward. Did the code I write compile? Does the interface work like I wanted it to work? One of the reasons I love making software is because it often produces a flow state for me.

Flow is characterized by a state timelessness, being fully immersed and engaged in an activity. Flow, often referred to as "flow state," is a psychological concept describing a mental state in which a person is fully immersed and engaged in an activity. This state is characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Essentially, when in a flow state, individuals lose their sense of time and are absorbed in the task at hand, often leading to high levels of creativity, accomplishment, and fulfillment. A key ingredient for flow is feedback which provides immediate and clear information about one's performance during an activity. Without this feedback, it's easy to start doubting oneself and one's work.

I happen to be a flow junkie. I admit it. More flow? Yes please! But I've found a tricky problem. Often there are many types of doing in the world that don't have immediate feedback cycles. Over the years, I've often found myself writing or speaking in an attempt to share useful ideas and wisdom with other people. I appreciate people who've helped me by sharing and I want to do the same in return. I want to be a helpful human. Sometimes I receive feedback immediately after a talk in the form of a question or someone coming up to me afterward. Or perhaps at the end of having coffee with someone I receive feedback in the form of an appreciation about what was helpful about something we talked about. But often that feedback is delayed by months or even years.

One of the tricky parts about trying to be helpful to other people is that those other people need time and space to put ideas into action. Perhaps someone hears an idea during a talk I gave. Perhaps they write it down or store it in a corner of their brain. And perhaps they immediately put it into action. Or perhaps more likely, the idea sits around for a while before being put into action. And once put into action, there's the often circuitous journey of trying the idea, developing a point of view about it. And perhaps someday that person will share their story and feedback with me. Or perhaps I'll never get feedback about it.

There's a story that illustrates this so well. A few years ago I gave a talk called Continuous Delivery Will Make or Break Your Product. It was about the importance of product managers focusing on shipping small incremental experiments so that they could have more opportunities to get feedback from users and iterate. The talk was well attended and there were many questions. So many questions that we all eventually had to be kicked out of the meeting space so that the next talk could start. I talked with a few of the attendees afterwards and then we all parted ways. Did I change the lives and working practices of those who attended? Who knows, I figured. Change takes time. And the ideas I shared that day could take weeks or months or years to try. And then one day a few years later I was at a happy hour where one of the people who attended that talk recognized me. He came up to me and introduced himself. And he shared how impactful the talk had been to him. Not only did he try some of the ideas I shared but he said he decided to become a product manager because of the talk. Wow. I was amazed. What amazing feedback. It sounded like something I shared was helpful and impactful. It made me feel really good.

Often that's how feedback goes. We share ideas, encouragement, etc with the people around us in our lives and our work. And sometimes we see the immediate impacts. But often that feedback is delayed or we never see it. Sure there are ways to get more feedback. But in the end, we'll still never learn about a lot of that feedback. This truth has helped me to trust in trying to be helpful and trusting that a few things out of all the things will be helpful. I may not know about the impact I've had. Or I may learn about the impact years later. And that's ok. Because I just want to be helpful. While the feedback monster in me wants all the feedback I've also learned to trust the process. Trust the process of being helpful. And trust that I will be.

P.S. I created High Lift Studio to help great ideas find their way into the world while getting fast feedback to learn and iterate along the way. Do you have a great idea you want to bring to life? Let's chat.

-Adam